State lawmakers are calling for answers from the Department of Labor about unemployment fraud.
Specifically, lawmakers and taxpayers want to know how much fraud occurred.
The unemployment insurance fund in New York is currently facing a $10 billion deficit, which was brought on by record-breaking claims in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“On the economic side, I can’t think of a bigger issue than the unemployment system and the abject failure (of it) at the moment when every New Yorker needed government to be there on a critical issue, we did not meet the challenge,” said Senate Minority Leader Bob Ortt told News10NBC. “We need as a government, as government leaders to identify and be honest about what failed and how we fix it going forward because shame on us if we don’t do that.”
Recently, lawmakers and small business advocates have said that insurance rate increases for unemployment are going to have a devastating impact.
To that end, lawmakers want to know how much of that deficit was brought on by the pandemic, and how much was brought on by an outdated, insufficient system.
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